EP0127309A1

EP0127309A1 - Monostable type relay

Info

Publication number: EP0127309A1
Application number: EP84302738A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Yoshikiyo Imai; Yuji Yasuoka
Original assignee: Omron Tateisi Electronics Co
Current assignee: Omron Corp
Priority date: 1983-04-22
Filing date: 1984-04-24
Publication date: 1984-12-05
Anticipated expiration: 2004-04-24
Also published as: DE3467950D1; EP0127309B2; EP0127309B1; ATE31228T1; CA1234851A; JPS59166343U; US4673908A

Abstract

A monostable relay comprises a bar-like core having a coil, and a yoke connected to the core and extending in parallel therewith. An armature including a permanent magnet is laterally movably disposed between a pair of upstanding legs formed at a free end of the yoke. Movable contacts are operationally coupled to the armature. The upstanding legs of the yoke have effective areas of magnetic pole differing from each other. Upon energiztion of the coil, the armature is moved toward the upstanding leg having the smaller magnetic pole area to close one of the stationary contacts by overcoming the resilient resistance of the movable contact arm. Upon deenergization, the movable contact is restored to the other stationary contact under the resilient restoring force of the movable contact arm.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to a polarized relay of a miniature size adapted to be mounted, for example, on a subtrate for a printed circuit.
In particular, the invention concerns an improvement on-or relating to a polarized relay of such a structure which comprises an electromagnetic coil assembly, a bar-like iron core inserted in the coil assembly, a movable magnetic block, and movable contact members, wherein the movable contact members are actuated selectively to either one of two switch positions by means of the movable magnetic block in response to energization or deenergization of the electromagnetic coil assembly.

Description of the Prior Art

To have a better understanding of the present invention, description will first be made of a polarized relay which has already been proposed for example, in the Japanese U.M. Appln. No.104536/1982 filed by the same asignee as the present application and having not been laid open to public inspection at the moment the basic application was filed. Fig.1 shows the relay in an exploded perspective view, and Figs.2(a), 2(b) and 2(c) show the relay in the assembled state in a top plan view, a side elevational view and an end view, respectively. An electromagnetic coil 1 is wound on a spool 3 having a through-hole 3a into which a bar-like iron core 2 is inserted. The iron core 2 has an enlarged end portion which serves as stoppers 2a and 2b. In the state in which which the core 2 is inserted completely in the through-hole or bore 3a of the spool 3, the end portion serving as the stoppers 2a and 2b projects outwardly from the end of the spool 3. A yoke 4 is disposed below the electromegnetic coil assembly 1 so as to form a magnetic circuit in cooperation with the iron core 2. The yoke 4 is of a substantially U-shaped configuration and has a pair of bifurcated upstanding legs 4a and 4b formed integrally at the free end. In the assembled state, the end portion (2a, 2b) of the core 2 is disposed substantially at a mid point between the upstanding legs 4a and 4b of the yoke 4. A movable magnetic block or armature is constructed generally U-shaped in section having a pair of legs magnetically polarized in opposite to each other or otherwise, is constituted by a permanent magnet. 6 which is fixedly sandwiched between pole pieces or plates 5a and 5b and held together by means of a frame-like holder denoted by a numeral 7 as shown in Fig. 1. In the assembled state of the polarized relay, the movable magnetic block or armature held by the holder 7 is disposed laterally movably between the pair of upstanding legs 4a and 4b of the yoke 4, wherein the enlarged end portion serving as the stoppers 2a and 2b of the core 2 is positioned in a space defined between the pole plates 2a and 2b in opposition to the permanent magnet 6. There are thus formed air gaps between the core 2 and the pole plates (5a, 5b) on one hand and between the upstanding legs (4a, 4b) of the yoke 4 and the pole plates (5a, 5b), respectively. The stopper faces 2a and 2b serve to limit the movement of the movable magnetic block constituted by the permanent magnet 6 and the pole piece plates 5a and 5b held together by the holder 7. The holder 7 has a pair of depending legs 7a and 7b formed with respective guide grooves in which movable contact members or arms 8' and 8" are inserted, respectively, as is shown in Fig. 2b.
The component 1 to 10 mentioned above are mounted on a base plate 11 which carries connector pins A1, A2, B1 B2, Cl and C2 depending downwardly. The relay thus assembled is protected by a cover case 12.
In operation, when the electromagnetic coil 1 is electrically energized in one direction, the iron core 2 is magnetized in a corresponding direction, as a result of which there are formed magnetic poles in the upstanding legs 4a and 4b of the yoke 4, respectively. In this connection, it is assumed that the permanent magnet 6 is magnetized as indicated by symbols S and N in Fig. 1 and that N-pole makes appearance in the upstanding leg 4b of the yoke 4 through the energization mentioned above. On the assumption, the holder 7 holding the movable magnetic block is moved toward the upstanding leg 4b under magnetic attraction acting between the leg 4b and the permanent magnet 6 as well as under repulsing force acting between the magnet 6 and the leg 4a of the yoke 4. When the force acting on the holder 7 and hence the movable magnetic block or armature overcomes the spring force or resilient resistance of the movable contact arms 8' and 8", the latter are moved toward stationary contacts 10, respectively, resulting in that the contacts of the movable contact arms 8' and 8" are closed to the stationary contacts 10. This is because the movable contact arms 8' and 8" are operationally coupled to the holder 7 at the depending legs 7a and 7b, respectively, as described above. On the other hand, when the direction of the current flowing through the electromagnetic coil 1 is changed over, the series of operations described above take place in the reverse direction, whereby the contacts carried by the movable contact arms 8' and 8" are detached from the stationary contacts 10 to be closed to other stationary contacts 9, respectively. The relay designed to perform the above operation is generally referred to as the latching or bistable type relay.
Fig. 3 of the accompnying drawings graphically illustrates operation characteristics of such bistable relsy. In the figure, a broken line curve I represents intrinsic resilient resistance of the movable contact arms 8' and 8" which has to be overcome by the electromagnetic force in the switching operation of the relay. This curve I may be referred to as the load characteristic curve. In Fig. 3, the stroke of the moveble contact arm performed upon switching operation of the relay is taken along the abscissa. The electromagnetic force (actuating force) required to move the movable contact to one of the stationary contacts, e.g. the contact 10, is taken along the lefthand ordinate, while the electromagnetic force (restoring force) required for the restoration of the movable contact 10 to the other stationary contact 9 is taken along the righthand ordinate. Intersection of the load curve I with the abscissa at a point 0.2 means that the movable contact carried by the arm 8 is located at the mid position between the stationary contacts 9 and 10. Solid curves represent stepwise the levels of the excitation current of the magnetic coil 1. As will be seen from fig. 3, so long as the movable contact is in the state closed to the stationary contact, this state is maintained even in the deenergized state of the magnetic coil (excitation current of 0%), because of the magnetic force of the permanent magnet 6- In order to move the movable contact away from the stationary contact, the excitation current supplied to the coil in the corresponding direction must rise up to the level of more than 20% of the rated value (100%). In this way, in the case of the bistable relay, energization of the coil is required every time the movable contact is changed over from one to the other stationary contact.
In practice, however, there are some applications in which the relay of monostable type is to be employed which has only one stable contact state. For example, when the illustrated relay has to be realized in the monostable structure, arrangement must be made such that the movable contact closed to one of the stationary contacts, e.g. the contact 10, upon energization of the magnetic coil is restored to the other stationary contact 9 upon deenergization of the coil. The operation characteristics of the monostable type relay are graphically illustrated in Fig. 4. It will be seen that the movable contact is spontaneously restored to the stationary contact when the coil current is 0%.
When the monostable relay is to be realized starting from the bistable relay described hereinbefore, effort has heretofore been primarily made to impart a restoring resilliency to the movable contact arm (8', 8") itself by appropriately deforming the movable contact arm 8', 8" through adjustment of the foot portion (8a) at which the movable contact arm is mounted on the base plate 11 in consideration of the operating voltage, the voltage level at which the movable contact is restored to the contact of the stable position and other factors. This adjusting procedure which must be performed for the individual relays is extremely delicate and troublesome, providing a great obstacle in fabricating the monostable type relay on a large scale manufacturing basis. To evade the difficulty, it is conceivable to previously deform the movable contact arm 8 before mounting on the base plate. However, since the terminal pins Al, A2, B1 and BZ are already mounted on the base plate when the terminal pins Cl and C2 which support the movable contact arms 8' and 8" are to be secured to the base plate, it is practically impossible to mount the pins Cl and C2 on the base plate from the above. Further, the terminal pins Cl and C2 themselves may be previously bent or deformed so as to impart the desired resilience characteristic to the movable contact arm when mounted on the base plate. However, because of unevenness in thickness and hardness of the pins which brings about unevenness in the deformation of the pins, the subsequent adjustment of the movable contact arms is inevitable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a monostable type relay which is evaded from the difficulties encountered in the manufacturing of the hitherto known relays.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a monostable type relay which can be easily manufactured on a large scale production basis without requiring troublesome adjustments of the movable contact arms for realizing the desired operation characteristics.
In view of the above objects, it is taught by the present invention that the magnetic operating force characteristic be matched with the load characteristic instead of making the latter conform with the former.
To this end, it is proposed according to an aspect of the present ivention that the upstanding opposite legs of the yoke which forms a magnetic circuit in cooperation with the iron core are differentiated from each other in respect of the magnetic pole area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a hitherto known polarized relay;
Fig. 2(a) is a top plan view showing the polarized relay in the assembled state;
Fig. 2(b) is a side elevational view of the same;
Fig. 2(c) is a partially broken end view of the same;
Fig. 3 is a view for graphically illustrating the operation characteristics of the hitherto known polarized relay;
Fig. 4 is a view for graphically illustrating operation characteristics of a polarized relay according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention; and
Fig. 5 is a perspective view showing a structure of the yoke which may be used in the relay according to the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

According to the invention, it is proposed to employ a yoke of the structure shown in Fig. 5 in the relay described hereinbefore in conjunction with Figs. 1, 2 and 3 in stead of the yoke 4 shown in Fig. I. Except for this feature, the other structure of the relay according to the invention is same as that of the hitherto known relay.
Referring to Fig. 5, a reference numeral 13 shows a yoke of substantially U-like configuration. The yoke 13 has a leg 13c at one end to which the core wound with an electromagnetic coil is fixedly connected. A pair of upstanding legs 13a and 13b are provided at the other end in opposition to each other with a distance therebetween for accommodating movably the movable magnetic block or armature constituted by the permanent magnet and others as described hereinbefore. It is important to note that the leg 13a is partially cut away in order to reduce the effective area of the magnetic pole when compared with that of the other leg 13b. The yoke 13 is incorporated in the structure of the polarized relay in the same manner as the hitherto known relay.
In operation, upon electric energization of the magnetic coil, the movable magnetic block or armature can be caused to be attracted to the upstanding leg 13a when the magnetization of the permanent magnet 6 and other factors are correspondingly dimensioned, whereby the movable contacts carried by the resilient contact arms are closed to respective ones of the stationary contacts. On the other hand, upon deenergization of the relay (corresponding to excitation current of 0% shown in Fig. 4), the armature is retracted toward the large magnetic pole 13b and thus the movable contacts are restored to the other stationary contacts, respectively, under the intrinsic restoring resiliency of the movable contact arms which overcomes the sticking force exerted to the small magnetic pole 13a. In this way, the operation characteristics illustrated in fig. 4 can be attained.
As will be apparent from the foregoing, a monostable relay can be easily implemented by using a yoke of the structure according to the invention without need for the subsequent adjustment of the load presented by the movable contact arms. Furthermore, a bistable relay can be readily changed or modified to a monostable relay by merely exchanging the yokes, whereby the manufacturing process of the polarized relays of both operation types can be much facilitated and simplified.
Although the invention has been described in connection with the illustrated embodiment, modifications and variations thereof will readilu occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention which is therefore never restricted to the disclosed embodiment.

Claims

1. A monostable type relay, comprising;

a bar-like core wound with an electromagnetic coil;

a yoke having one end connected to said bar-like core at one end thereof and extending substantially in parllel with said core, said yoke having at the other end a pair of upstanding legs disposed in opposition to each other so as to define a space therebetween, the other end of said core being positioned substantially at a mid point of said space;

a movable magnetic block generally U-shaped in section having a pair of legs magnetically polarized in opposite to each other and so disposed that one of said polarized legs is positioned in air-gaps defined between one of said upstanding legs and said core, and the other of said polarized legs is positioned between the other of said upstanding legs and said core, respectively; and

movable contacts operatively coupled to said movable magnetic block so as to selectively contact with stationary contacts;

wherein effective area of magnetic pole produced in one of said upstanding legs of said yoke is reduced than that of the other upstanding leg.

2. A monostable type relay according to claim 1, wherein said movable magnetic block is composed of a pair of pole plates and a permanent magnet sandwiched between said pole plates and so disposed that said pole plates are positioned in air-gaps defined between one of said upstanding legs and said core and between other upstanding legs and said core, respectively.

3. A monostable relay according to claim 1, wherein said one upstanding leg is decreased in size as compared with the other upstanding leg.